


Family

by elfiethewicked



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Gen, Klance is in chapter two, M/M, Season/Series 04, Self-Indulgent, Team Bonding, this is basically what happens when Keith snaps under pressure
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-17
Updated: 2017-10-17
Packaged: 2019-01-18 18:15:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,978
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12393483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elfiethewicked/pseuds/elfiethewicked
Summary: *CONTAINS SPOILERS OF SEASON FOUR*“Yes, I do. You guys are my family. You are the only family I've ever had! Do you know how much it sucks to be with the people you consider your family and have them constantly talking about getting back to their real families, when you know they won't give a jack shit about you once they do? How much it sucks to leave them behind just so they can stay together. Let’s face it, we are one paladin too many: one of us had to go. Might as well be me. I can fight this war from another angle and it’s not like you need me now that you have your real leader again. Lance is piloting Red, and we can’t take blue from Allura, so it’s better for everyone if I step behind. I am the loner, remember? And like I said, you all have your families that you will go back to once this is over. I don’t, so the sooner I get used to being on my own again, the better.”Silence settle over the room and Keith fought back the tears that were burning in his eyes.“Okay, so I’m just going to… leave” Gesturing helplessly with his hands, Keith shrugged and turned around.





	1. Chapter 1

Matt was out on a mission and Pidge, Lance and Hunk were talking about their families, Allura and Shiro were discussion tactics in the other side of the room and Keith, who had returned to the ship for a visit sat in the corner alone.

 “Oh man, I miss my ma so much, she made the best food, no offence Hunk.”

“None taken”

“I miss dad too, I miss his stupid jokes that only he thinks are funny”

They had been talking like this for hours and Keith had a headache that got worse with every word.

“Why don’t you just shut up about your families for like five seconds, we have a mission to focus on!”

Keith’s words, that had come out like a scream echoed in the room and everyone turned to him.

He felt an itch underneath his skin, the kind he used to feel before his temper blew up and he lost control.

“Aww come on Keith don’t be so serious.”

“The mission is the most important thing right now, if we fail it won’t matter if we miss our families or not, we won’t have families to go back to so maybe we should focus on succeeding the mission. You need to get your priorities straight”

“You don’t even have a family Keith so why don’t you shut up.” Lance voice was ice-cold.

Keith felt the fuse ignite, burn, and blow.

“Yes, I do. You guys are my family. You are the only family I've ever had! Do you know how much it sucks to be with the people you consider your family and have them constantly talking about getting back to their real families, when you know they won't give a jack shit about you once they do? How much it sucks to leave them behind just so they can stay together. Let’s face it, we are one paladin too many: one of us had to go. Might as well be me. I can fight this war from another angle and it’s not like you need me now that you have your real leader again. Lance is piloting Red, and we can’t take blue from Allura, so it’s better for everyone if I step behind. I am the loner, remember? And like I said, you all have your families that you will go back to once this is over. I don’t, so the sooner I get used to being on my own again, the better.”

Silence settle over the room and Keith fought back the tears that were burning in his eyes.

“Okay, so I’m just going to… leave” Gesturing helplessly with his hands, Keith shrugged and turned around.

He didn’t hear the steps behind him, but he felt the presence of a body moving towards his. Years of fighting had taught him that much. He went rigid but kept walking.

“Wait, wait, wait” Lance caught up to him and placed himself in the way of Keith and the door. “You really feel like that?” Keith but on a blank face. “You can’t be _serious_! You actually don’t think we care about you?”

“ _Of course,_ you care about me. Now. But are you really going to give a shit once you get your families back? And you did the math yourself, we only have five lions but six paladins, that _is_ one paladin too many. You care so much about this team, you are the one to life everyone else’s spirits and cheer everyone on. I’m just the hot-headed pilot who makes bad decisions. Besides I can fight with the Marmora’s. It’s better that I step away than that you do”

Lance went quiet and looked at Keith’s shoes. “You left the team so I wouldn’t have to?”

“Someone had to go; I wasn’t going to let it be you.”

“Wait.” Pidge stepped up to him. “Is that what the whole going-with-the-Blade-of-Marmora was about? You stepping aside so the team wouldn’t split.

“Yes! No! I don’t… I mean- It was a part of it; the universe cannot go without Voltron, but the universe can go on without Keith. Voltron can go without Keith. It’s a matter of priorities.”

“Voltron _cannot_ go without Keith”

“Yes it can, you have been forming Voltron great without me. You have all the vital parts – Shiro’s the leader, Allura’s the heart, Pidge and Hunk make up the brain and Lance the spirit. I’m nothing, I’m just the guy that gets us into trouble. I’m expendable. Why do you think I was prepared to smash myself into that forcefield to stop the witch?”

“You did _what?”_ Lance voice was a mix between a squeal and scream.

“Hold up a moment.” Hunk stepped forward now. “That was your plan for stopping the canon, just smashing your way into it?”

“Our weapons had no effect on the forcefield, and we needed to take down that weapon. We are all going to die anyway, better if it just be me”

“Okay,” Lance’s voice was calm now, not in a good way but in a scary way. “Okay. So, you smash into that force field to save the universe, to save us, and kill yourself in the process. Did you even consider that none of us would be able to move on from that? That it would kill us to know that the only reason we survived was because you didn’t.”

“It’s war, Lance! We make sacrifices in war” Keith was screaming now. He couldn’t see why they made such a big deal out of it, he hadn’t had a choice.

“You can’t just-“

“Yes, I can. It’s my life to risk and either way I would do it again. Even if it wasn’t the universe at stake, even if it wasn’t Voltron, even if it was just you. I can’t lose you.”

“We can’t lose _you_!”

“Yes, you can! You did. You, you, you-“ Keith’s voice broke and to his horror he could feel the tears burning in his eyes spill over. “You didn’t even ask me to stay” He choked out.

“You didn’t even ask me to stay when I left, as soon as Shiro came back I didn’t matter. It was just, pang, boom, fixed, no need for Keith anymore. Sure, you said you’d be there for me if I needed you, and I still can’t tell you how much that means to me, to know someone would have my back but then I saw that live show and you all seemed to work so well without me. You never tried to contact me or anything, you just… let me go” Annoyed he wiped the tears of his face and made for the door again but Lance placed himself in the way again.

“Keith, I lov- We love you, all of us. You matter. You are important to us, to the team. Not as the red paladin, or the black one, or a solider. You matter to is because you are Keith, and that’s all you have to be. That’s enough for us. If you want to fight with the Marmora’s that’s okay, but if you want to stay, stay here with us, we can fix that, and Keith? We really want you to stay.”

“Yeah, I just got back my brother Keith, that doesn’t mean I want to lose another, this isn’t a trading game you know.” Pidge voice was breaking a bit but she carried the words strongly, enough for them to reach Keith and he had a sudden impulse of hugging her. He smiled at her, almost reached for her when she, quick as lightning, punched him in the stomach.

“Wha-?”

“That’s for almost getting yourself killed. You don’t get to do that.” Dumbstruck and out of defences Keith just said “okay” when Pidge threw herself at him and hugged him tight. He resisted the urge to pat her hair. As Pidge let go of him she sneaked her hand into his for a quick squeeze before she let go.

Allura stepped up, and Keith prepared himself for a lecture but instead she places a hand on his shoulder.

“I’m sorry we forced you to be a leader you didn’t want to be, and that we made you feel like you didn’t have a valuable part in the team. I understand how you feel, I felt a lot like that before I became a paladin myself, I see now that my change in placement in the team has affected the rest in ways I didn’t consider. While I also understand your reasoning as to why smashing yourself into that barrier was the best option– “

“Allura!” Hunk’s scandalised voice shot up.

“- you need to understand that your life matters just as much as ours, as anyone else’s in this universe. I know that you feel like you are worth less because you don’t think you have a family waiting for you, but Keith you do. You do, and even if you didn’t that doesn’t make you any less worth. Look at me, I don’t even have a civilization, a race, or a planet, but do you think less of me for that? I know you don’t so please, please don’t look at yourself less because you don’t have any blood relatives at your side.”

Then Hunk came up. “Oh man, I can’t believe you thought we didn’t care about you, I mean we screwed up so bad. I’m sorry man, I’ll try harder. You know we would never have gotten this far without you, I mean we wouldn’t even have _found_ Voltron if it wasn’t for you and without your flying skills we would’ve never gotten the blue lion back. Of course, we would want you with us even if you didn’t do cool junk like that”

“Yeah man, totally, if I didn’t have you who else would I make fun of?” Lance said from beside him. Keith almost smiled at that, but there was one part still bothering him. The man in the background who so far hadn’t had anything to say. First looking at his feet and then up at him he finally mustered up the courage to address him.

“Shiro?”

He was met by silence and Keith’s heart contracted.

“Yeah Shiro? You are being awfully quiet; don’t you have anything to say to Keith?” Lance spoke up, resting a hand on the small of Keith’s back

Shiro looked pained for a moment.

“Keith-“ Shiro’s voice broke but he took a deep breath and continued. “Keith, if that’s the way you feel, if that’s the way we, that I, have made you feel then-“ Shiro swallowed visibly. “I have failed you, not only as a leader but as your friend, as your brother.

You have got to know that’s how I look at you, as my brother, that I always have, and that I have made you doubt that, that I have made you feel lesser and replaceable is the worst thing I could’ve done.

I know how much it hurt you when your family abandoned you, but you have to know, that we, that this family, will never do that.” Shiro placed a hand on Keith’s shoulder and Keith could see tears in Shiro’s eyes and Keith felt his heart splinter.

“I am so, so sorry.” He pulled Keith into a hug and soon the rest of the team followed, every one of them crying.

“Keith?” Lance voice pipped up, unstable but unwavering.

“Yeah?”

“You honestly thought we were going to let you go back to living in that shed when we go back to earth? That we would just dump your ass there and forget about you? Because dude, what the hell?”

“Yeah…”

“Dude, bro, my man, that is not what will happen. When we get back to earth I’m bringing you home with me. My ma would love to meet you, she will complain that you don’t eat enough, that you spend too much time training and that you need to relax.”

“Yeah,” Hunk chimed in, “Mrs McClain is the best, and either way when you have been at Lance’s you are totally coming with me.”

“And me,” Pidge said, “Matt and I have already discussed it; dad will love you when he meets you, he will never stop asking you about your galra genes or how you can fly that fast and still that precise.”

“You discussed it?” Keith’s voice was thick with emotion.

“Yeah, dude, Matt was about ready to kill you after our mission at Naxzela, even though he refused to tell me why, but I guess now I know.”

“Even when this war is over and I get you back to your planet, you will always have a home on this ship.” Allura smiled and squeezed his shoulder.

“And I’m sorry I made you feel like you didn’t have a home with me anymore, Keith.” Shiro’s voice was rough with unshed tears.

“Thank you, all of you, I’m sorry I made such a scene.”

“Honestly dude? You should have made a bigger scene, and way sooner. Before you planned to _smash yourself into a forcefield!”_ Lance voice went terrifyingly high-pitched towards the end of the sentence as he squeezed Keith from behind.

“You are not letting that go anytime soon are you?”

“Nope, I am never going to let that go, because you almost died on me dude. You are so not allowed to do that!”

“Okay,” Keith said again, closed his eyes, and, for the first time in a long time, he smiled.


	2. Chapter 2

Later, after everyone had gone to bed – Allura had called Kolivan and explained that Keith would be staying with them for a few days – Keith went up to the observation deck. He liked to sit there and look at the stars. He sat there and thought about what he had said today, how he had felt a billion pounds lighter and a billion pounds heavier once it all had gotten out. How that heaviness had lifted when the team had wrapped their arms around him and promised that they did care. He sat there and thought how, for the first time, something good had happened when he lost control of his emotions. When he actually let them show. He promised himself to try to be more open with his feelings with the rest of the team. This time he heard Lance’s footsteps behind him, and this time he didn’t tense up.

“Can’t sleep?” He asked as Lance sat down.

“No, I keep thinking about today.”

“It was pretty intense, huh?”

“Yes, I mean no, I mean, that’s not what I meant”

“What did you mean then?”

Lance cleared his throat. “I keep thinking about what you said, how you felt and I keep wondering why no one noticed.”

  
“Lance, I didn’t want you too”

“Maybe not, but we still should’ve seen that something was wrong. And a second thing I can’t get out of my head is that you stepped aside so that I wouldn’t have to leave the team. Why would you do that?”

“I know how much this teams means to you, how it became your family when you lost your real one; I couldn’t let you lose that.”

“You knew this, you _knew this_ , and still didn’t think you mattered to me too?”

“Well you haven’t exactly gone out of your way to show me you want me around” Keith huffed and Lance groaned.

“Oh man, I’ve been doing this all wrong.” He sighed. “You’re not going to want to hear this and maybe this isn’t the right moment to say it, but I think you need to know”

“Okay…” Keith was weary now

“Okay, okay, I can do this. I can.” Lance cleared his throat again.  “Keith, I know you think I haven’t really cared about you and that I’ve seen you as a rival or at most a stand in for Shiro but that isn’t the case. Keith… I’m in love with you. Have been a long time. At first the rivalry was just a way to get your attention, but then you actually payed attention to me, threw back sassy remarks at me when I tried to get under your skin, and somewhere along the road I fell I love with you for real. I really missed you when you went away with the blades and I thinks that’s when I realised how strong my feelings for you were. I wanted to contact you a hundred times but every time I reminded myself that you left us and probably wanted to be left alone. I see now how stupid that was of me. I know I haven’t been the best at showing it, but at least now you know. I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable.”

They sat in silence as Keith thought about Lance’s words. “You are right” He said finally. “You haven’t been the best at showing it, you always flirted with everyone you met and mostly just teased me. However, you are also wrong.” He turned and looked at Lance. “I really missed you too, when I was gone but I thought you all were so much happier without me that I didn’t want to bother you. And Lance, I did want to hear this, partly because it’s nice to know you don’t hate me and well, also because I’m in love with you too” He waited until he saw his words sink in Lance's brain, waited to see the smile that lit his face, then Keith relaxed, leaned his head on Lance’s shoulder and closed his eyes. He felt Lance lean his head on his own and Lance’s hand reaching for his. He met him halfway and intertwined their fingers. He sat there with Lance, leaning against the wall, feeling, for the first time in a long time, that everything would really be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading, please leave a comment down bellow. 
> 
> Come visit me on tumblr at @elfiethewicked


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